Skywatch Friday-Summer

Hello,
Welcome Skywatching people!
I am looking up...and back, today.

Sunset, Summer 2009 in the South of Peloponnese.

Thank you for stopping by! I look forward to visitng and admiring your skies.
With thanks to our skywatching hosts.

Come aboard!

Hello dear friends,
The post on Greece that I told you about in my previous post is up here. Please stop by and let me give you the tour on places, people and objects that I like. I promise it will be fun!

Meet an Ancient Athenian girl

I may not do much about my study field of Archaeology, but I am always attracted to new develpments and finds. Today I am sharing with you the reconstruction of the figure of a young girl living in Athens, c.430-426 B.C. Her sceletal remains were found in 1995. There followed a series of studies starting with medical doctors and concluding with a famous sculptor and a famous fashion designer, Sophia Kokosalaki.

"Myrtis", as she was named by the archaeologists who found her body including her (rather problematic) teeth in perfect condition, was a 11 years old free citizen girl or perhaps a young home aid, when she died during the plague that killed some 50,000 Athenians including the Athenian statesman Pericles himself. Research conducted on the teeth of the victims found in a collective tomb together with "Myrtis'" showed conclusively for the first time that the typhoid was caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Τyphi. 

Isn't it amazing how the girl looks so contemporary?
The scientific presentation will take place tonight at the Acropolis Museum and the exhibition "Face to Face with the Past" will be open to the public till June 15th at the Goulandris Natural History Museum in Kifissia.

Curious, Greek and Funny

"A Greek man is suing a Swedish dairy firm for £4.5 million after his photograph ended up on yoghurt tubs marketed as a "Turkish" brand." 


(Can't blame him!)

"The man, who is furious at being portrayed as a Turkish, the traditional national enemy of Greece, has accused Lindahls dairy of using his image without permission.

He found out about his picture on the Turkish-style yoghurt tubs after Athanasios Varzakanos, a friend living in Stockholm, recognised him. (...) In his legal writ the man, who has not been named by the courts, has argued that he is not Turkish, he is Greek, and lives in Greece, and the use of his picture is misleading both for those who know him and for buyers of the yoghurt.

The dairy has expressed surprise at the legal action and has insisted that the image was legitimately bought from a picture agency.

Last June, an American couple was shocked to discover that their family's Christmas card photo, which had been posted on a social networking internet site, was being used without their permission to advertise a supermarket's delivery service in Prague." 

The first animals that do not depend on oxygen to breathe and reproduce have been discovered by scientists on the bed of the Mediterranean Sea.

"Three species of creature, which are only a millimetre long and resemble jellyfish encased in shells, were found 2.2 miles (3.5km) underwater on the ocean floor, 124 miles (200km) off the coast of Crete, in an area with almost no oxygen.

The animals, named Loriciferans due to their protective layer, or lorica, were discovered by a team led by Roberto Danovaro from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy. (...)

The professor said: "It is a real mystery how these creatures are able to live without oxygen because until now we thought only bacteria could do this."

(Both stories from The Telegraph, here and here)

Mount Athos: An ancient Christian community

Hello dear friends,

Today I want to share with you some images of a place of particular blessing.

Mount Athos is situated on the northern peninsula of Chalkidiki in Macedonia, northern Greece. It is very often called "Hagion Oros", that is "Holy Mountain" in Greek. Though land-linked, it is accessible only by boat. The number of visitors is restricted and all are required to get a special entrance permit before entering Mount Athos. Only males are allowed entrance into Mount Athos, and that is because it is "The Garden of the Virgin" .

Ttradition has it that, the Blessed Virgin Mary was sailing accompanied by St John the Evangelist from Joppa to Cyprus to visit Lazarus. When the ship was blown off course to then pagan Athos it was forced to anchor near the port of Klement, close to the present monastery of Iviron. The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the wonderful and wild natural beauty of the mountain, she blessed it and asked her Son for it to be her garden. A voice was heard saying "Ἔστω ὁ τόπος οὖτος κλῆρος σός καί περιβόλαιον σόν καί παράδεισος, ἔτι δέ καί λιμήν σωτήριος τῶν θελόντων σωθῆναι" , that is "Let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved". From that moment the mountain was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and is to this day out of bounds to all other women. Most monasteries date from the 7th c AD onwards although Christians had found shelter in the woods since the 4th c. AD.

The athonite community flourished during the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire and is very much alive to this day, with some 1600 monks living currently in its 20 monasteries and their associated sketes, offering its blessings to those who seek God.

The clip below is a trailer of a new documentary on Mount Athos to be released next Monday. I am sharing it for you to enjoy the beauty and serenity of this place.



You can read more from a Western's point of view in two great books. One is called Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise , a great paperback with beautiful illustrations and the other The Monks of Mount Athos: A Western Monk's Extraordinary Spiritual Journey on Eastern Holy Ground. Since women are not allowed on the mountain, Mount Athos - An Illustrated Guide to the Monasteries and Their History is a great guide on the monasteries and the ancient art, paintings and manuscripts they house.

There is also an ongoing appeal for the restauration of the Chilandariou monastery that was destroyed by fire in 2004. The watercolour above is part of a collection by watercolourist and print maker Doug Patterson, in aid of the appeal.You may read more in English here.

May you all be blessed.

Show and Tell Friday-Europe

Hello dear friends,
you may recall from last week's post that some old books have found their way to my bookshelves recently. Let me show you today a very special one. First of all it is a gift for which I'm very hankful.

It is a book about Europe. I love travel companions. The world is so big and so beautiful and diverse, and we probably won't see but a tiny part of it in our lifetime. What a nice way to travel back in time simultaneously...

I love old lithographs and books with old fashioned paintings. Wouldn't you love to travel across the Atlantic on that steamer?

There are pictures from across Europe. The time, not that far away, when people still put on their traditional costumes. What a wealth!

Here we are in Greece. There are modern time miracles, too. Like the Isthmus of Corinth, the canal which connects the Peloponnesus peninsula with mainland Greece. It was built in 1893, effectively making the Peloponnesus...an island, and fascilitating boat traffic.

Look at these girls. What kind of life did they lead? They were certainly quite priviledged, since they went to school.

I love this passage...I think I'll put it somewhere on my blog! (Click all pictures to view larger)

Thank you for stopping by today. And Thank You Cindy for hosting. See you all next week.

Awakenings-Islam in Europe

In recent years successive Greek governments have been under increasing pressure to allow the building of a large mosque in Athens. As the number of Islamic immigrants has increased dramatically in the past decade, Muslims have been executing ntheir religious rights in open air gatherings in parks and squares or in private residencies and makeshift mosques. For years the late Archbishop Christodoulos had resisted the pressure and he was outspoken on the sbject of Turkey's entry in the European Union.
Several "non-governmental" organizations such as Amnesy International have been urging and often  succeeding in seeking the condemnation of Greece for not allowing the building of mosques.
Apart from their role in spreading multiculturalism these people and organisations seem to suffer from selective amnesia.

Greece has been for thousands of years the rock against which splashed the waves of Eastern invasions, from the Persians to the Turks. Hundrends of Leaders from King Leonidas of Sparta in 480 B.C. to Constantine Paleologos, the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire, in 1453, have offered their lives as a sacrifice of the European people against the hords of barbarians flooding our lands.

(Oil painting by Iannis Nikou)

It is more than hypocritical to talk to us about human rights, when we fell under the Ottoman sword suffering nearly 400 years of oppression until the Greek Revolution of 1821 that gave to a relatively small part of what used to be Greece, its freedom. We still have several mosques and minarets standing following international treaties.

In the strugle to keep our homeland free, other European nations followed suit, defending Christianity in the Holy Land, and on European soil as in Vienna , Austria, in 1683 when Prince Eugene of Savoy saved Western Europe from the clasp of the Ottoman Turks.

Unfortunately, while Greeks are under the spell of media and intelligencia orchistrated propaganda, some nations refuse to surrender their identity to the mass marketed world soup. As reports the BBC:

(Picture credit The Telegraph)

"Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.

More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.
The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People's Party, (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which says minarets are a sign of Islamisation.
The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland's image, particularly in the Muslim world.
But Martin Baltisser, the SVP's general secretary, told the BBC: "This was a vote against minarets as symbols of Islamic power."
The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Bern, says the surprise result is very bad news for the Swiss government which fears unrest among the Muslim community.
Our correspondent says voters worried about rising immigration - and with it the rise of Islam - have ignored the government's advice.
In a statement, the government said it accepted the decision.
It said: "The Federal Council (government) respects this decision. Consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted." (...)
Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets.
After Christianity, Islam is the most widespread religion in Switzerland, but it remains relatively hidden.
There are unofficial Muslim prayer rooms, and planning applications for new minarets are almost always refused.
Supporters of a ban claimed that allowing minarets would represent the growth of an ideology and a legal system - Sharia law - which are incompatible with Swiss democracy.
Amnesty International said the vote violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.
Elham Manea, co-founder of the Forum for a Progressive Islam, added: "My fear is that the younger generation will feel unwelcome.
"It's a message that you are not welcome here as true citizens of this society."


In recent years countries across Europe have been debating how best to integrate Muslim populations.
France focused on the headscarf, while in Germany there was controversy over plans to build one of Europe's largest mosques".

What is also interesting to see, is the reaction of some Muslim readers in the BBC forums. Apart from the obvious cliches, one reads messages such as these:

We should not misjudge the Swiss people as they are simply trying to protect their own culture and religion and there is nothing wrong in that.Saudis and Pakistanis are doing that all the time. l. We should not over-react. KAYSVAN, SHAH ALAM

Religions should be practised in privacy - whether Europe or elsewhere, this being personal faith of individual.Swiss people have certainly showed their good understanding for future generations.
Ram Mehrotra, Delhi, India

May I close this long post with two posts coming from England.
One says:

So, let me see if I understand this....

The Goevernment let the people vote on this issue.
The people decided that they do not want Minarets.
The Government do not agree with the decision but, as Switzerland is a fair and civilised country, they are prepared to uphold and stand by the decision their people have made....
What a strange system they have - Perhaps we could try it some time Gordon!


msea biscuit, East Chinnock, United Kingdom

And here is a comment by a very sweet as it turns out, great-grandfather:

Minarets and religion are just symptoms of a problem. Let's face the facts. It is a natural instinct of humans to defend and preserve their racial background, culture and history. Anything perceived as a threat to those qualities is regarded by most as invasive and obnoxious, and so it has been throughout history. Man-made laws to eradicate so-called "racism" cannot change human inborn instinct.

So the Swiss vote should not surprise anybody. It's the way we are made.

[Anglobert], Surrey, United Kingdom

On another similar subject:

We have, since the 1950s, been politically brainwashed into accepting mass immigration to the UK. Anti-racist laws have been passed to stifle free speech on the subject.

Of course, my grandchildren accept our present society but, sadly, they cannot enjoy the proud, united, patriotic, lawabiding nation that I did before, during and after WW2.
Immigration is the one subject on which we should have had a referendum in the 1950s. You are now just wasting your time, Mr Brown. Decades too late.

(Let us hope and pray it is not)

On an entirely different subject that of "What makes a happy marriage" he had this to say:

Happy marriage? I marvel at my good fortune. In our 60th year of marriage, four great and happily married children, 11 lovely grandchildren and a g/grandchild, we have never had a serious dispute. I'll die with a thankful smile.

Lucky! Had served in WW2 and was at a loose end. A local girl asked me to go with her on a Church ramble. Me, on a ramble? My dear Mum told me it would do me good and persuaded me to go. Met this little Irish girl who still bowls me over. Lucky old me. Thanks, Mum!!

Wish us the same luck, Sir!

Election countdown and two movies

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis announced a new general election tonight, two years after he won a slim majority of 151/300 MPs.
There has been some speculation in the past week or so, but as we were out of town over the weekend and I wasn't in the mood of watching the news, I did not make much of it.
Apparently the minority decided not to support the re-election of the current President of the Republic and would ask for elections in about six months time. That would be a long time of uncertainty given the current economic situation, so a general election was decided for October 4th.
This kind of behind the scenes politics, causing elections in less than the constitutional four years, is that makes me doubt politics and democracy itself. Poor Greece...

An a lighter note, I am posting below some excerpts from two Greek movies. They were made in 1965-6.
In the first one you can see the gathering of one candidate's supporters. ( the film was shot on the magnificent island of Spetsai, off the Athenian riviera).



In the second one, another candidate tours his mainland constituency with his daughter. Here we watch him rehearse his speech. Wait till the end of the scene!..



You may have heard of this characteristic Greek gesture. I think that is how most Greeks feel about their politicians.

Here it is, performed live (not to be repeated by ladies)



(If you are so inclined, you may watch the entire colour movie here. Beautiful photography.The b&w is more difficult to follow, if you don't know the language, but you can always take a look here).

Tomorrow is another day.

May 29 1453: Asia sets foot on Europe

" To surrender the city to you is not of me or any other of its citizens;
common opinion have we all to die without counting our lives".

Constantinos Paleologos, by the grace of God Emperor of the Romans, +May 29, 1453 defending the ramparts of Constantinople against the invading Ottomans of Muhammad Khan II.

"…Crashing aside the Christians at Varna in 1444 they secured possession of Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, the territory now called Bulgaria and Romania, then in 1453 they put again under siege Constantinople which on May 29 fell into the hands of Mehmet II and by the way: do you know who was Mehmet II? A guy who, by virtue of the Islamic Fratricide Law which authorized a sultan to murder members of his immediate family, had ascended the throne by strangling his three year-old brother. Do you know the chronicle that about the fall of Constantinople the scribe Phrantzes has left us to refresh the memory of the oblivious or rather of the hypocrites?

Perhaps not. It would not be Politically Correct to know the details of the fall of Constantinople. Its inhabitants who at daybreak, while Mehmet II is shelling Theodosius’ walls, take refuge in the cathedral of St. Sophia and here start to sing psalms. To invoke divine mercy. The patriarch who by candlelight celebrates his last Mass and in order to lessen the panic thunders: “Fear not, my brothers and sisters! Tomorrow you’ll be in the Kingdom of Heaven and your names will survive till the end of time!”. The children who cry in terror, their mothers who give them heart repeating: “Hush, baby, hush! We die for our faith in Jesus Christ! We die for our Emperor Constantine XI, for our homeland!”. The Ottoman troops who beating their drums step over the breaches in the fallen walls, overwhelm the Genovese and Venetian and Spanish defenders, hack them on to death with scimitars, then burst into the cathedral and behead even newborn babies. They amuse themselves by snuffing out the candles with their little severed heads... It lasted from the dawn to the afternoon that massacre. It abated only when the Grand Vizier mounted the pulpit of St. Sophia and said to the slaughterers: “Rest. Now this temple belongs to Allah” Meanwhile the city burns, the soldiery crucify and hang and impale, the Janissaries rape and butcher the nuns (four thousand in a few hours) or put the survivors in chains to sell them at the market of Ankara. And the servants prepare the Victory Feast. The feast during which (in defiance of the Prophet) Mehmet II got drunk on the wines of Cyprus and, having a soft spot for young boys, sent for the firstborn of the Greek Orthodox Grand Duke Notaras. A fourteen year-old adolescent known for his beauty. In front of everyone he raped him, and after the rape he sent for his family. His parents, his grandparents, his uncles, his aunts and cousins. In front of him he beheaded them. One by one. He also had all the altars destroyed, all the bells melted down, all the churches turned into mosques or bazaars. Oh, yes. That’s how Constantinople became Istanbul. But Doudou of the UN and the teachers in our schools don’t want to hear about it."
(+Orianna Fallaci, The Force of Reason)

Old maps and paintings and a digital recreation of the City, accompanied by a song about the Red Apple Tree of folk tales.



"Ethnic" by Michalis Rakintzis. Watch the half-moon turn into a cross, and the church of St. Sophia (The Wisdom of God) now a mosque, become a church again.



"You'll come like a lighting", from the "Marble King" collection (1998) by Stamatis Spanoudakis at the Herod Atticus Theater, below the Acropolis of Athens.

"...A dove came down from heavens:
Stop the Cherubic, and lower the Sacred Vessels,
Priests, take the Sacramental
and you candles blow out...
For it is the will of God the City should fall to the Turks...

Our Lady was disturbed and the icons tearful.
Hush, Our Lady and you, icons weep not,
With the passing of years and in time she 'll be yours again".

...the Annunciation of Freedom

(Elizabeth Murray: Woman and Child in Greek Dress)

Victor Hugo: The Greek Boy
("Les Turcs ont passe la.")
All is a ruin where rage knew no bounds:
Chio is levelled, and loathed by the hounds,
For shivered yest'reen was her lance;
Sulphurous vapors envenom the place
Where her true beauties of Beauty's true race
Were lately linked close in the dance.
Dark is the desert, with one single soul;
Cerulean eyes! whence the burning tears roll
In anguish of uttermost shame,
Under the shadow of one shrub of May,
Splashed still with ruddy drops, bent in decay
Where fiercely the hand of Lust came.
"Soft and sweet urchin, still red with the lash
Of rein and of scabbard of wild Kuzzilbash,
What lack you for changing your sob--
If not unto laughter beseeming a child--
To utterance milder, though they have defiled
The graves which they shrank not to rob?
"Would'st thou a trinket, a flower, or scarf,
Would'st thou have silver? I'm ready with half
These sequins a-shine in the sun!
Still more have I money--if you'll but speak!"
He spoke: and furious the cry of the Greek,
"Oh, give me your dagger and gun!"

Today we celebrate the beginning of the revolution of 1821 against the Turks, that led to the liberation of a small part of what was Greece, and that is now the modern Greek state. It all began in my native Peloponesus, where the flag of the revolution was blessed by the Bishop Germanos of Patras, meaningfully, on the day of the Annunciation.


(Oil painting by Theodore Vryzakis (1865)

Freedom or Death!

I do not forget

Tomorrow, Sunday the 8th of March 2009, takes place in Cyprus the burial of the bones of Greek Cypriots found in a mass grave and identified through D.N.A. test. They belong to members of a single Greek Cypriot family listed as missing since the Turkish invasion of 1974.

On August 17th, 1974 the turks killed in cold blood :

JOHN and CHRISTINA MICHAEL, aged 77 and 68 respectively, their son MICHAEL, aged 42, their daughter MARGARITA LIASI, aged 48, her three daughters, HELEN, 25, CHRISTINA 23 and ILIADA, 18, and Margarita's grandson, LOUKAS, aged 2.

Loukas Kkailos Liasi, aged 2.

From the Liasi family survived George, then aged 15, Giannoula, then 27, the mother of Loukas, who were seriouly injured but survived (George with a bulet in his head, and Giannoula with 17 bullets in her body), and Panagiotis who was then serving in the National Guard.

George and Giannoula Liasi today.

Twenty one people from four families, the Liasis, George Giannakis' family, Giannakis Michael's family, and Andrea Souppouris' family, had found refuge in Souppouris' home. The Liasis, Giannakis and Michael families were related. As George recalls, some 300 Greek Cyrpiots who were trapped by the invason, were gathered in the village of Voni. The Turks put the men in the village church and the women in the village school. Then they were taken in groups and were shot, nevr to b seen again.

In the same grave there were found the bones of :

SOTIRA GEORGIOU, her dauhter MARY, aged 7, and her son JOHN, aged 9 months. Their burial took place on February 14th, 2009. On the same day were buried the bones of six members of the Souppouris family.

The funeral will take place on Sunday at the Apostolos Andreas Church in Aglandza at 12.30.

Den xehno-I do not forget.

July 20th-The Prophet Elijah

The Prophet Elijah is a favorite Saint of the Greeks. There are many people who carry his name. This is quite surprising as he is a personality of the Old Testament,with which Greek culture is not particularly familiar, apart from St. Anna and St. Elizabeth that are quite popular names,too. Greece had a strong religious and philosophical tradition before the spread of Christianity, that is why the Jewish side of the Bible didn't particularly fit with the Greek way of thought.

But there is an explanation to Prophet Elijah's popularity, if I may phrase it like that. His feast is associated with the mountaintop worship of the sun, that is why almost all churches you find in the countryside are situated on hilltops and mountaintops and bear his name.

His dipiction as ascending to heaven with a charriot is reminiscent of the Sun's charriot, a very popular notion in Ancient Greek religion.

Last but not least his very name Elijah, pronounced Ilias in Greek is very similar to the Greek word for the sun, Ilios. Try to say it and you'll find a smile popping up in your face.
No wonderm, then that he fitted so well with Greek menatlity and is so popular among Greek people.

Hi, it's me, Irene!

Think of what might happen if all computers were to shut down! At times I think it will be olde-time peaceful, relationships truer, life easier. But no, no, nope! Shut the computers down and most of us will go nuts! Me, for example: My computer does not upload the photos from my camera or my mobile. The computer boy is nowhere near. And there is no phone line yet at home. See?

I have spent the past few days opening boxes and trying to figure out where to put what. We deep cleansed our old apartment, sorting out stuff. You don't want to know what I found, but suffice to say I have been hanging on to disposable napkins from the maternity ward, ten plus years ago and nail polish that I used to like ten years ago, and which I meant to ask someone to bring to me from the States.

The outlaws as a friend calls them are arriving TO-MOR-ROW, although they had said they'd come on Thursday. That means they will be staying one more day and we have one day less to get ready for them. AND they are staying till the end of July, no questions asked!
Please, PLEASE send good, positive thoughts my way. If you read this long enough you know how intruding these people are. So please, say a prayer for me and cross your fingers that I do not freak out completely ON OUR ANNIVERSARY for sakes!

The highlights since my previous post. One, was having a shower after the clean up at the old apartment. In our new home we have water shortages in undefined hours of the day and/or the night, so we basically rush to the shower whenever we see the taps running. It was great! Ah the small things in life!.. After that we headed to a restaurant for a meal that took ages to arrive. However this had its benefits as they brought F the wrong plate. She had ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce. The waiter pressed the wrong code and there arrived a huge dish with spaghetti and lobster! They did not leave it on the table (silly people), but as preparing her meal would take another 15 min, they suggested they serve her a portion of the lobster dish. Oh well!


The other highlight: We went to see Mamma Mia! You absolutely MUST go and see it! You'll certainly leave the theater with a huge smile, although I did cry when Streep was singing to her about to be married daughter. Time does run fast... Meryl Streep is such a lovely surprise, it was so brave of her to be part of a musical/ movie, and so is the mighty 007, Pierce Brosnan and the rest of the cast. The film is shot on location in Skopelos and Skiathos, two pine covered islands in the Aegean. I haven't been there, but they look fantastic.
The Abba songs are fabulous, the Mamma Mia!soundtrack is out and we are dancing to it at home. I loved Streep and Julie Walters, as always. A great feel good movie. You may read reviews here and here. You may also visit the official website and have a look at the trailer below.




Have a great summer time and God bless.

Meeting a childhood idol

Maria Hors is an emblematic figure of the Olympic flame ceremony that takes place before the Olympic and Winter Olympic Games. She has been choreographing the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony for 50 years. She retired this year as a choreographer, but, like all creative people, she remains very much a youth.

As a child and a teenager I used to dance for the Lyceum Club of Greek Women which has branches wherever Greeks live, really from Athens to Johanesburg to Paris. Among its many activities, the club offers Greek folk dance lessons to boys and girls. That is how I met Mrs. Hors.

And this is how I remember her. Always in a long skirt, beating her tambourine to give us the rythm, the halfs and the quarters. Tonight I am going to meet her again, after some 25 years. I am sure she won't remember me, but I hope that she will leave a nice impression on my daughters as she has for me.
There is an interesting documentary about Maria Hors that you may like to see by clicking here. Hors talks in Greek but there is wonderful archive material to watch and admire this very special lady.

Why I despise villagers

Being a villager is not a bad thing per se. After all, some of our ancestors deep in time came from a village somewhere on the European continent. But the spirit of the village? Ugh! Yesterday afternoon I was reminded why I don't like getting familiar with villagers.

C drove me to a village where I was going to meet some ladies for a seminar I am going to talk to you about next week.

As we finished early, I was offered a lift by another participant whose parents came from a nearby village. These are the questions I was asked on the way back (even when I remained silent, or tried to change subject, they kept repeating them):

-What do you do for a living?

-Do you have a lot of work?

-Are you married?

-Do you have children"

-One or two?

-Why, you don't even look married!

-When did you get married?

-How old is your elder child?

-How old were you when you got married?

-How old are you now?

-How old were you when you got married?

-Did you marry out of love?

-Are you happily married?

If it were a walking distance, I would have gotten off the car.

These are the questions that have been in my mind since yesterday:

Is it just me?

Is it my mingling with an Anglo-Saxon upbringing ?

Do I have to pick another country of choice to call home?

Shall I pretend my Greek isn't good enough to understand those questions?

How do you tell someone that they are rude, without being rude yourself?

Has anyone else come across anything like it?

555 years on

Constantinos Paleologos, by the grace of God Emperor of the Romans, +May 29, 1453 defending the ramparts of Constantinople against the invading Ottomans of Muhammad Khan II.

Old maps and paintings and a digital recreation of the City, accompanied by a song about the Red Apple Tree of folk tales.



"Ethnic" by Michalis Rakintzis. Watch the half-moon turn into a cross, and the church of St. Sophia (The Wisdom of God) now a mosque, become a church again.



"You'll come like a lighting", from the "Marble King" collection (1998) by Stamatis Spanoudakis at the Herod Atticus Theater, below the Acropolis of Athens.

"...A dove came down from heavens:
Stop the Cherubic, and lower the Sacred Vessels,
Priests, take the Sacramental
and you candles blow out...
For it is the will of God the City should fall to the Turks...

Our Lady was disturbed and the icons tearful.
Hush, Our Lady and you, icons weep not,
With the passing of years and in time she 'll be yours again".

Singing Songs

Last Saturday some 49% of telespectators watched the European song contest. It is not exactly European as Turkey and Israel also take part. Russia came first this year, with Ukraine second, something to be expected, given the enormous rise of Russian influence in the continent, but Greece was in the third place, leading all the way in the first place until the ex-Soviet states began voting.
I also liked Norway's song and their presence on-stage. Womanly without being cheap and provocative.
Otherwise, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Ukraine and some others had some ridiculous songs and performers.
Anyway,none of it is Beethoven, but I quite like the singer, Kalomira, who is a fellow Greek-American and a very nice and smiling girl.



Here are the lyrics of the Greek entry:

Performer: Kalomira
Song title: Secret Combination
Song writer: Poseidon Yannopoulos
Song composer: Konstantinos Pantzis

Can you see it?
Can you see it?
You have to discover me
What goes wrong when I am crying
Or what I want when I’m smiling

Can you feel it?
Can you feel it?
That I’m not a little girl
You’re misunderstanding my way
And all the roles that I like to play

My secret combination
It’s a mystery for you
Use your imagination
I’m not easy but I’m true
My secret combination
Boy you have to try it hard
To win a destination in the centre of my heart!

An open book,
An open book
Well, I’m sorry, I am not
Sometimes I’m acting like a lady
Sometimes woman, sometimes baby

My secret combination
It’s a mystery for you
Use your imagination
I’m not easy but I’m true
My secret combination
Boy you have to try it hard
To win a destination in the centre of my heart!

Well done Kalomira! You are a little happy star!

Holy Week 2008

Holy Week and Easter are behind us, but the flavor of the holidays is with us.
We went to church with the children, who are now more able to understand the language, and more patient with the time involved.

Thursday night we've listened to the twelve gospels narrating the events up to the cruxifiction and placement of Jesus in the tomb in our local church. On Great Friday we went to C's village and followed the afternoon service amongst the few elderly inhabitants and visitors. C carried the epitaph, an edifice made of carved wood, representing Jesus' tomb, that women decorate with flowers. In there lies a heavy red velvet. With golden thread is embroidered the dead Jesus with His Mother, his beloved John, the Apostles and the two Maries.

On Friday morning we visited an elderly relative who is very-very nice with us, bringing her the customary Easter sweets and eggs.

Fasting on Great Friday is strict, so we don't eat meat or dairy, not even oil. So, this is what our meal looked like.
I shall soon post about Easter Sunday, too. It was a deeply moving and peaceful week, for which I am offering thanks to God.